The Afghan Whigs, Live in London

Greg Dulli's men in black get soulful in the capital

The Afghan Whigs returned to the UK this week for their first British date since the release of their Do to the Beast album. Here's five things we learned watching them seduce a sold-out Electric Ballroom.

ROCK IS BETTER WHEN PLAYED BY MEN NOT
BOYS

Too many bands are fronted by silly
little boys, working out their problems with women, low self-esteem,
abandonment issues, masculinity and violence in public, squawking and
whining as if they're the centre of the universe. Fuck those guys.
Like QOTSA's Josh Homme or Soundgarden's Chris Cornell or his buddy
Mark Lanegan, Greg Dulli is, unequivocally, a MAN, a man who's taken
beatings and dished them out too, a man who's weathered storms and
eaten shit and broken hearts and stared down the Devil. And when those guys talk, you listen. Tonight is a masterclass
in story-telling, in dynamics, in control, with Dulli shrinking a
room down to the point where he holds 1000 people rapt in the palm of
his hand. This is what being a true frontman is all about.

YOU NEED YOUR WITS ABOUT YOU AT AN
AFGHAN WHIGS SHOW

The Whigs have always been a
ridiculously proficient, thrillingly adept band, capable of seguing
into soul or R&B or pop obscurities at the flick of a plectrum.
Tonight there are several “Was that...?” moments, as fragments of
songs by Drake (Over My Dead Body), Pink Floyd (Another Brick In The
Wall Part One), Fleetwood Mac (Tusk) and Bobby Womack (Across 110th
Street) are subtly and lovingly appended to Whigs' standards. If one
wished to get philosophical one might interpret the band's catholic
tastes as both a tribute to the universal power of music and a
rejection of divisive genre boundaries, illustrating the joy to be
found in communal human experiences. Or, y'know, it just might be
that Dulli likes fucking with our heads. Whatever, it's magical.

GENTLEMEN IS ONE OF THE GREAT 'LOST'
ALBUMS OF THE '90S

Always slightly out-of-step with their
peers, Afghan Whigs can count themselves a little unfortunate that
their most fecund creative period coincided with 'alternative' rock
taking over the mainstream. At a point when the world was utterly
fixated upon the dark drama of Seattle rock, the Whigs' fourth studio
album Gentlemen rather slipped through the cracks – a shame,
because hearing Fountain and Fairfax, When We Two Parted and the
magnificent title track this evening is a potent reminder of its
breath-robbing majesty. A cult classic, it deserves a wider hearing.

DO TO THE BEAST IS ONE HELL OF A
COMEBACK RECORD

Of all the great rock bands who've
reformed in recent years, only Soundgarden and Afghan Whigs can
genuinely stake a claim to have enhanced their reputation with new
material. No fewer than eight of the ten tracks on Do to the Beast
are included on tonight's set-list – only Can Rova and These Sticks
fail to make the cut - yet the show is every bit as enthralling as
the greatest hits set the band rolled out on their last visit to the
UK in August 2012. Given their deep respect for classic American
music, one might forgive the Whigs were they to indulge in a certain
amount of nostalgia, but their refusal to do so speaks volumes of
their vitality and Dulli's restless, questing spirit.

YOU OWE IT TO YOURSELF TO SEE THIS BAND

In the years following Afghan Whigs
dissolution internet messageboards were frequently assailed by
anguished music fans lamenting the fact that they'd only just
discovered the band and would now never get the opportunity to see
them play live. Now there's no excuse. It's a shame that the band's
summer UK tour consists of just four shows – London, Manchester,
Glasgow and an appearance at Latitude festival – but should they
return to our shores on this touring cycle you really should make the
effort to see this band. As the final notes of Faded, er, fade
there's a genuine, heartfelt appreciation in the ovation that
accompanies the band's exit stage left. Few rock bands are this
sharp, this sussed, this sophisticated or this soulful: treasure them
while they're here.